Asura ran for several minutes in silence and, within that time, he covered a great amount of distance that separated him and the floating objecting object in the sky. He had increased his pace after witnessing its destruction and stopping firing in order to move on towards its next target. Thus, at the current rate of his speed, he would reach it within another few minutes.
On the way, he entered the destroyed city, noting the devastation to the land and the great scar left on the world. On the other hand, Lucky, who was inside their Unconscious World, was expression his regret for not making there in time.
“This is… bad! Really bad! All the buildings, all the places… the livelihood of the people of this city…”
“They’re alive. They should be grateful for that,” said Asura without interest.
“But! Asura! How are the people going to live now that their homes are gone?! You think the government of this world will ensure they get new homes?”
Asura thought for a moment in silence while he ran before saying, “Depends on the structure of the government. Like, I believe they will provide provisions, such as food and such, and then do some constructions, but I don’t know about that. Any clever person in power would realise the pain staking task of spending all the money under the government just to repair a city and make it a place to live again.”
This instantly made Lucky angry as he telepathically said, “Are you saying it’s all to do with politics? Like, the other members of the government would argue and fight against some of what one side is trying to accomplish despite it being good?”
“Isn’t that why our worlds are constantly at war before the arrival of the Emperor of the World and look how that turned out as soon as he left? In just three years of his disappearance, a global wart broke out and forced the Phoenix Titan of that time to summon the World Guardians to put an end to it and that wasn’t the end of it. Keep in mind of the wars that followed in the time that a new Phoenix Titan didn’t incarnate. Darian told you about the stories.”
“Yes… The war with the spirits and the war against the demons,” replied Lakshman in a quiet voice.
Asura smirked with an exasperated smile on his face and said, “Greed, selfishness and self-sustainability is the thing that is at the centre of every being and it pushes them forward. If you don’t believe me, then take one look at our history, and you’ll find many who’ve done exactly that. The Calamity Titan to rule the world, the Phoenix Titan in his selfishness to save the world without once trying to use his powers as the Phoenix Titan and, finally, me.
My selfishness to present a safe world for my brother to live in is what pushed me to wage a global war against the other inhabitants of our world. In the end, what did I get? Nothing! My wives died by the brother I raised, and I eventually killed him with my own hands. Whatever I did, all the blood I shed, and all the lives I slain in the name of my selfishness… it was all a waste!”
There was a moment of silence before Lakshman replied in a quiet voice in his mind, “There’s a saying, Asura. ‘What goes around, comes around.’ What you fought for was good, but the path you’ve taken to go about it was wrong. That’s why, your wives and your brother paid for your consequences. No one escapes from their eventual downfall to the crimes they’ve committed in the past; be it them or their descendants. Like the Serpent of Revenge, the Curse of Retribution cannot be escaped.”
Asura suddenly smirked and said, “I really want to make a joke about the people praying to the gods, wishing and doing all sorts of things to appease them. I’ve seen it in the ancient times and, while the practice has lessened, there still are the freaks who claim god will bring them salvation.”
“That’s none of our business,” replied Lakshman telepathically in a sharp voice. Despite it, Asura protested with a smile on his face, which made Lakshman sigh and say, “I’ve seen the believers put their religion into action and do many great and terrible things. I’m not one to judge, but over time, I think the gods will do us favours if we put our effort. I honestly think that’s the most important thing about our prayers.”
“Mmm,” said Asura shortly, not really sure how to respond to that. A few seconds later, he simply replied with, “Yes. That makes sense.”
“Now, instead of getting distracted with nonsense thoughts, let’s go!”
“Nearly there!”
While they were discussing amongst themselves, Asura had run away from the destroyed city and onto the road leading towards the next city. As he drew nearer to it, he heard the same rhythmic sounds of warning as the people were being evacuated from the city before the ship arrived there. It seemed that this city was larger than the previously destroyed city, so the flying object was taking some time to get to the centre of it.
As Asura entered the city and came to a halt after skidding for several meters, he looked up and said, “Good. I made it before that thing, but what now? Should I enter it?”
“That sound dangerous. For one thing, we don’t know what the insides of that thing are like? It could be a monster!”
“I think that’s what’s running through everyone’s minds, but I don’t believe it. I have this feeling that it’s something like a vehicle. Anyway, only one way to deal with this is by first getting up there,” said Asura and fell silent for a moment before stating, “I’ll jump.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Asura!” Lakshman shouted sharply in his mind. “Do you have any idea of the great pressure we need to put into our legs, especially while being unable to control the Energy Force and Magic Force? No. We need an alternative plan.”
Asura sighed in displeasure and began looking around for some sort of idea to arrive at while muttering, “An alternative… An alternative…”
While turning around and looking at the places, his eyes stopped to focus on a really tall building a few meters away. It was a strangely built building that was covered by windows on every side, displaying nothing on the inside. He did not know how tall it is as it seemed to reach the sky, but he knew it was the best option to take. As such, a familiar smile of confidence slowly formed on his face.
“Right. That’ll do,” he muttered in satisfaction.
He charged at the building and, as soon as he reached it, he leapt into the air and smashed against the building. The impact caused it to shake slightly and break the windows in a small area around him. Grabbing onto a hold with both of his hands, he began to run as fast as he could, but his legs kept slipping on the steel bracket due to him moving in an upward angle. Still, he used his arms to push himself up to the next bracket and the next before managing to get the rhythm to run vertically at super speed without falling off.
Each time he passed a bracket, the windows in a small area around it shattered into pieces and the building shook slightly. He shot upward like a rocket and right at the very edge, he used his leg to touch the edge and propel himself high into the air, spun himself around in mid-air and land skilfully on the roof. His feet got dragged on the roof of the building before he came to a stop against the other side.
“Right. This’ll do,” said Asura, getting into a running position while facing towards the flying object that was slowly approaching his location.
“I guess this is better than jumping from down below, but be careful not to punch it too hard in case it might burst!” Lakshman warned, thinking of the devastating consequences if that thing was indeed a monster.
“Hmph! Managing to reach that location without overshooting it will do for now,” said Asura, smirking with a smile on his face.
Asura closed his eyes and began to time to the moment that he felt the wind touch his cheek. It was pleasant and reassuring, as if mother nature was with him, which made him smile in the process. Then, when his timing came, he sharply opened his eyes and charged forward at an incredible speed. Each step caused the bottom floors of the building to shake and, just before launch, he exerted great strength into his legs.
Like a bird soaring through the air, he flew towards the oncoming object at an incredible speed. As he reached it, he gritted his teeth and smashed his head against its surface, slamming his fist against it in the process. In an instant, an incredible force was unleashed and solid surface got destroyed, letting the wind blow in all directions and making the flying object to suddenly steer in a different direction.
With the metal protecting the contents of the contents destroyed, Asura grabbed hold of the opening with one hand as he dangled high above the ground. He glanced them and smirked before proceeding to enter through the recently opened hole in the metal object.
“Okay. So, this is not a monster. We can agree on that,” said Asura, smiling as he looked around his surroundings, while the wind blew from the hole and buffeted against him.
“Yes. This is a weaponised transport,” said Lakshman, stating what the object finally was.
“Whatever it is, it’s going down!”
“How about we try making it leave instead? Falling here, on top of the city, will result in similar destruction as before,” suggested Lakshman in a reasonable voice.
Asura remained silent before saying, “That’s not up to me. I’ll let the fools controlling this thing to decide.”
With that, he began to hurry through the corridor that was completely made of steel enforced walls. With the inability to use Elemental Sense, both Asura had to rely on his instincts, which he felt they both were lacking in.
“This is why we shouldn’t get accustomed to comforts too much, otherwise, we’re kind of helpless in this situation,” Asura commented, continuing to run at a normal pace.
Lakshman found the comment funny as it made him telepathically say, “Really and here I thought you’d be fine without one. I guess this makes us even since we are one.”
“Very funny!” Asura snapped, making Lakshman chuckle inside his mind.
After turning several times along the way, he came to a stop when he saw something up ahead. The corridor was filled with brightly lit lamps that were shining down from the lamps embedded into the side walls. With the aide of the light, Asura saw that several monstrous creatures with large builds were running towards him, growling and snarling in their monstrous ways. Each were different in various ways, rushing towards him while letting off a great intimidation aura.
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Asura narrowed his eyes as Lakshman thought, “They’re definitely monsters and intimidating ones at that! This doesn’t help! We can’t sense how strong they are.”
To that, Asura smirked and stood his ground without making any stance to defend himself as the monsters rushed over and struck him. The first to reach, hit him across the face while the one behind it swung to the side to slam him hard in the chest before the first one came again to kick him away. Asura flew through the air and flipped over a few times before landing on his knees with his hands down, getting dragged before coming to a stop in the process.
“Asura! Stop taking the first blow!” Lakshman scolded him in a serious voice.
Asura smirked evilly and spit a small amount of blood out of his mouth before regaining his footing to stand up tall. He wiped the small blood stain on his mouth and gave a truly mirthless smile on his face, something he shows to those he wishes to utterly destroy.
The monsters looked at each other and then charged at him once more, but this time, Asura ducked underneath the flying fist, pulled his own clenched fist back and smashed it into the monster’s gut. He dug it deep, causing the monster to lurch its mouth open while its body blew open from behind, sending its blood and guts flying towards its comrades. They halted in their progress as they saw the first attacker sag towards the ground and lay limply on the ground. Asura straightened up and, once again, showed them a truly mirthless smile, with his eyes looking like they were mad.
“Pathetically weak!” He commented in a rough voice, causing them to hastily take a step back in fright. Then, he waved his hand at them to come towards him while saying, “Come on!”
Regaining their senses, the monsters roared and charged in to avenge the death of their comrade. Asura wiped his smile and wore a serious look as he watched the second attacker coming at him. When the monster came swinging his left arm at him, Asura merely extended his arm out and smashed him across the face, hammering him against the wall by his face with just one hand.
Asura looked at the other monsters, who halted in their approach, and smiled evilly at them before flatting the monster’s head in his hand, squashing it and spraying the strange blood everywhere. Some of it fell on Asura’s face, transforming his normal look into something filled with the utmost terror. This suddenly frightened the monsters and made them all turn on their heels to run away as fast as they could.
“Who told you to run?” Asura asked and rushed forward to begin the extermination.
Within a matter of minutes, he was through with decimating each and every monster that was there. While he was doing that, several more arrived on the scene, wielding weapons from spears to swords. Like the ones that lay dead all around Asura, they charged at him while roaring with wild fury.
Asura moved forward and grabbed the two that tried to thrust their spears at him. For a moment, he was surprised by the sudden feel of pressure he felt from the spears as if they were enhanced with super strength. However, their strength could not compete with his because his retaliation startled them all. He grabbed the spears held by the two monsters at the front, spun them in a 180-degrees and stabbed them into their owners.
Grunting with intense pain, the monsters gripped the spears and tried to remove them but realised they were set in place because of Asura’s unbelievable strength. Then, with a smirk on his face, Asura forcefully pushed the spear through the two monsters and stabbed several more that were positioned right behind them. Just like that, eight monsters were taken out with two spears without even putting up a fight.
Several monsters came around the corner while swinging their swords at him, but their attack failed with Asura retaliation with lightning reflexes. He grabbed the first swordsman from over his shoulder and tossed him towards the dead monsters and swung around to grab the second attacker’s sword, then swung it around to stab into its owner. Asura pushed the sword through and stabbed another monster with it before kicking them away, giving him some room to work in. At the same time, the dead monsters were being stepped on as the monster soldiers rushed in to take his life, not realising all of them were rushing towards their doom.
Within several minutes, all the attackers that came at him were brought down, and Asura continued to bring down all those that attacked him while he was on his way were taken down with minimum effort. Still, his wounds from before, continued to burn and ignited the pain he was desperately trying to ignore, which would make him realise he was pushing himself. Already, the white wrappings around his body are getting covered in the blood seeping out of his wounds.
“Take it easy! Our wounds are starting to really weaken us!” Lakshman said warningly.
“You’re right, but… I can’t stop right now!” Asura said in a deadly voice, cutting off his enemy’s head without any mercy.
Several minutes later, the last of the warriors seemed to have stagged and fallen on the floor with a heavy thud. Asura was almost covered in the blood of the monsters, but he did not care as he stared around to see if there were any more of them to kill. Seeing none, he breathed a deep sigh when, to his surprise, he heard a strange voice in his head. He thought that he imagined it but then, a second later, he felt his body get surrounded by a bright glowing light and, before he could do anything, he got transferred to a different place.
In that room, everything was lit up by multiple screens on the day, which was showing the scenes from inside the corridors, which was filled with the dead bodies of the monsters. At the bottom, there was someone seated in a high chair and monitoring the view, who currently had their back turned to Asura. Then, the person began to lift from the chair, hovered in the air and slowly turned to reveal who they were.
“Huh?” Asura asked, raising an eyebrow by what he found surprising.
The person was similar to that of a human, with a slim built body and an air that he was very intelligent compared to the monsters. The differences came in when Asura noticed that the man sported long green hair, spiked horns on his forehead, three large vertical shaped eyes, had a small nose that could have been missed and a wrapped seal around the place where his mouth should be.
“Um… A cyclops?” Lakshman asked curiously, which made Asura shrug indifferently.
Just then, he heard the voice of someone speaking in an unrecognisable language inside his head. For a moment, Asura thought he had imagined it, but when the voice came again, he knew the voice belonged to the person hovering off the ground in front of him.
“Is that person trying to speak directly to us?” Asura muttered, moving his mouth as little as possible so that only his counterpart could hear him.
“Possibly, but I think whatever it is, it’s trying to communicate with us. See? It’s changing the way it speaks each time we hear it. It’s probably trying all known languages, although, how could it know our language?” Lakshman asked, voicing the doubt that Asura was just about to raise.
“Exactly,” replied Asura, agreeing to the doubt.
Several seconds gone by until they heard the voice say in his head, “Hey, you! Can you hear me? Honestly! How many times does it take to make one measly human understand a mighty being like myself?!”
“This person’s an idiot,” commented Lakshman, but Asura remained indifferent as he did not care about it as he went to reply.
“I can understand you now.”
“Finally! About time you understand me, fool! Are you dumb or something? Your race of mongrels seriously need to evolve to understand the basic language known throughout the galaxy!” The person said, moving his eyebrows and changing his expressions slightly to show his displeasure.
“Fool? Big word coming from a person with no mouth,” replied Asura immediately.
For a moment, the three-eyed man’s eyebrows flickered, then they looked like they were smiling, but the next word he spoke changed everything.
“Down.”
In an instant, Asura felt a huge amount of gravity pull him towards the ground and, unable to resit the force, he fell forward with great impact and lay there, unable to move at all. He gritted his teeth and tried his hardest to move his muscles, but he realised he was at the mercy of his enemy, making him feel a sudden dread that he had never felt before in his entire life.
“W-What’s going on?! Is this magic? Can’t be! I can’t feel any kind of magic application in this!” Asura shouted, as he winced from the pain of his wounds being freshly reopened.
“What is this?! How’s he doing this?!” Lakshman thought desperately, as confused as his past self was.
“Magic? Are you stupid numkins still relying on that old and outdated way of power?” The three-eyed person asked, a hint of disbelief and sadness can be seen on his face. “Honestly, this is a disappointment. The Overlord will be most displeased by the poor level of development in the civilisation of this world.”
Asura did not say anything, but he gritted his teeth nevertheless as he knew he was in a predicament that he was helpless in. Seeing that he did not receive any response from his fallen foe, the three-eyed person used his powers to return the gravity around Asura to normal and lifted him into the air, his feet dangling off the ground. Despite this helpless situation, Asura continued to remain composed because he did not wish to give the satisfaction of showing weakness to his enemy, who also seemed to have realised this.
“Not going to put up a struggle, a fight, or even yell for help?” The three-eyed person asked with an expectant look on his face. When Asura continued to give him the silent treatment, the person seemed to sigh before telepathically saying, “Right. I suppose I’ll actually congratulate you on defeating our foot soldiers, but do know that they are just that; foot soldiers. They are not the elite, so don’t count yourself lucky just because you’ve taken care of the weak mob.”
Asura narrowed his eyes and asked, “Why are you doing this? What are you after?”
For a moment, the three-eyed person looked surprised, widening his eyes in the process, but he quickly made them seem like he was smiling as he simply replied, “Globalisation.”
Asura blinked once in surprise and asked, “What?”
Before he could ask more, the three-eyed person said in a bored voice, “Anyway, I’ve had enough of this. You were great as an experiment to test and see what your kind were capable off. As it turned out, we had nothing to fear from you. As of right now, I have no more use for you so go ahead and become a bloody meat bag. Crush.”
The moment the last word was spoke aloud, a tight invisible wall formed around Asura and began to squeeze into him. His arms locked to the front, and his face tightened with pain as he felt his body was being slowly crushed together by something around him. He gritted his teeth tightly and clenched his fists until they started to hurt, but he did not let a single emotion of pain escape from his mouth.
“You’re not going to even yell? This isn’t going to be entertaining if you behave that way,” the three-eyed person said, looking rather dull.
Asura glared fiercely at him and finally said, “You think you’ll crush me? Me? You’ve got to be kidding me! RRROOOOAAAARRRR!!!!”
Letting out a drawn-out scream, Asura began to exert all the strength he got while ignoring the pain caused from his reopened wounds. It was incredible as well as intense as his face contorted with the effort he mustered into move his arms, all in order to break free from the crushing hold his enemy had him in. Inch by inch, he was slowly breaking free and this surprised the three-eyed person because he never expected his opponent would possess such enormous strength.
“You think you’ve got me in a crushing grip? No! I’m breaking free!” Asura shouted with a triumphant smile on his face as he was almost freed from the crushing grip.
The three-eyed person seemed to nod in understanding before saying, “Mmm. Not bad. You are actually pretty good, however, you’re still not there yet.”
Without receiving any sign of his opponent’s move, Asura felt the crushing grip disappear and felt all his gathered-up strength to slacken. Without warning, he was flipped upside down, with his head facing down and his legs facing at an upward angel. Then, the three-eyed person proceeded to count joyfully while smacking Asura up and down against the metallic floor.
“A one!”
A loud bang was heard as Asura’s head smashed into the floor and, as he was hoisted in the air again, blood started to seep slowly in the open wound on his skull.
“A two!”
Once again, a loud bang was followed by Asura rising up, blood now quickly covering some part of his face as it freely dripped down. By this time, Asura felt his vision spinning around in circle and as blood rushed to his head, causing him to feel very painful about his predicament.
“A three!”
This time, the light in his eyes went out as he was knocked out cold from the solid impact of his head against the floor. As he raised up, he dangled limply, his eyes closed as blood now starting to seep quickly from the painful crushing wound he received to his skull.
The three-eyed person observed him for a few seconds, waiting to see any sign that he was going to wake up. When he remained motionless, the person decided he had enough fun with the visitor and decided to let him out, but not the normal way.
Narrowing his eyebrows to form a twisted look on his face, the three-eyed person said, “and down you go!”
Asura went down at such speed and force, his head pierced through the floor, continuing to plough through the metal before bursting out from underneath. The three-eyed person watched his unconscious enemy falling rapidly to the surface before turning his attention back to his desk, where a small object, something like a microphone, flew over to him for him to speak into it.
“Elites! Be ready to sortie to the ground. Wipe out all there is and let us present this planet to our one and true master.”
“The Overlord! He is the master. He is the king. He is the lord. He is the ruler of us all. All Hail Overlord!”
“All Hail Overlord!” The three-eyed person said in a chorus, narrowing his eyebrows to form a sinister expression on his face.